Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the

Hollywood Reporters Awards Podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg and my guest today is a Vietnam vet who returned

from that war after 15 months of service with two wounds and a bronze star and subsequently became

one of the most talented and controversial writers, directors, and all-around filmmakers of his

generation. Indeed, among other titles he wrote but did not direct

1978's Midnight Express, 1983's Scarface, and 1985's Year of the Dragon. He wrote and directed

1986's Salvador and platoon

1987's Wall Street 1989's

born on the 4th of July

1991's The Doors, and JFK,

94's Natural Born Killers, 1995's Nixon, 1999's Any Given Sunday, 2006's World Trade Center,

and 2016 Snowden.

And he directed but did not write 2008's W and 2010's Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, as well

as documentaries about, and with the cooperation of Fidel Castro,

Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin.

The winner of three Oscars, won for writing, recognizing his adaptation of Midnight Express, and two for directing,

in recognition of his work on platoon and born on the 4th of July, he has been described

by the Guardian as, quote, a a sort of latter day Ernest Hemingway

an action man with a reputation for women and drugs close quote and ever since his film

JFK made famous the skeptical phrase quote back into the left close quote

almost 30 years ago he has also been seen by some as a conspiracy nut and by others as a

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